Attempted Murder Acquittal, Deadlock Wind Up Denny Trial : Courts: Watson is freed, and sentencing of Williams is set for Dec. 7. The district attorney calls the verdicts in the attack on the truck driver a bit ‘incomprehensible.’

In an emotional climax to one of the most racially charged chapters in Los Angeles history, a jury Wednesday acquitted Damian Monroe Williams of attempting to murder trucker Reginald O. Denny and deadlocked on the final assault charge facing Henry Keith Watson, who walked out of jail and into a city that was both jubilant and appalled.

“It’s a nice day out today, huh?” Watson, 29, quipped as he left Men’s Central Jail after nearly 1 1/2 years behind bars--more time than he would have served for his one misdemeanor assault conviction.

As some spectators gasped, Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk declared a mistrial on the one deadlocked count, which prosecutors have not yet decided whether to refile. The judge then set the stage for another potentially controversial episode by scheduling a Dec. 7 hearing to sentence Williams, who faces two to 10 years in prison for the single mayhem and four assault convictions he received Monday.

Williams, 20, clasped his hand to his face and hugged his attorneys as the multiracial jury submitted its final verdict in the case, which exploded into the public eye on April 29, 1992, when Denny unwittingly drove his gravel truck into the unfolding unrest at Florence and Normandie avenues. One of the panelists, a middle-aged woman, quietly sobbed. The forewoman put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“I said it wasn’t over till the fat lady sings,” said Williams’ beaming mother, Georgiana, after belting out a religious hymn in the court hallway. “I just sang.”

The final verdict, returned by a jury that sometimes seemed on the verge of self-destructing, prompted the Los Angeles Police Department to again call a modified tactical alert, which was expected to remain in place until this morning.

No serious problems were reported despite an outpouring of opinionated voices that ranged from celebratory chants to angry grumblings from a public that watched Denny’s horrifying attack on live television at the outset of last year’s riots.

Calling the verdicts a bit “incomprehensible,” a clearly disappointed Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti went on the airwaves to reassure anyone who might feel that criminals have been given free rein. “I know the anger, I know the frustration, I know the fear that is in some of your hearts,” said Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor. “We are in control.”

Despite criticisms that prosecutors piled on too many charges, Garcetti insisted during a press conference that his office was not overzealous. He said that, although the evidence warranted the charges, “It appears you had a jury who wanted to compromise.” He urged the public to remember that six convictions were returned, carrying with them up to a decade in state prison in Williams’ case.

In a joint appearance Wednesday morning, Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Willie L. Williams also urged the city to remain calm and accept the jury’s decision. “We ask you all to follow the lead of Reginald Denny himself, who has asked the people to put their anger aside and look to the future of this city,” Riordan said.

With Williams and Watson cleared of the most serious charges, the prosecution’s case against a third defendant accused of aiding and abetting them in the attempted murder of Denny also began to unravel. Antoine Eugene Miller, 21, was released Wednesday after his bail was lowered from $250,000 to $25,000, and a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said that some charges against him will probably be reconsidered.

“This was a victory,” said Miller’s mother, Gwen, as she waited at the inmate reception center at County Jail with a $25,000 bond for his release. “We have to claim victory. If you don’t claim it, you won’t get it.”

A few moments later, she was with her son, speeding back home in a white convertible with bail bondsman Celes King behind the wheel. Drinking Snapple and eating Doritos, his mother’s lipstick still smudged on his face, Miller just said again and again: “I’m glad to be out. Oh, I’m just glad to be out.”

Along the way, he called several friends on the car’s cellular phone, including Watson. “I know how you feel,” he told Watson. “I’m going to get in the house, close the door and hide myself.”

Talking to another friend, Miller said: “I’m gonna turn my life around. I’m not going to do anything wrong anymore. I wouldn’t throw rice at a wedding.”

At that point, his mother said she used to have trouble getting him to take the trash out. “I bet I won’t have any trouble anymore,” she said.

At Watson’s house, as TV news helicopters buzzed overhead, the family’s white Lincoln Continental pulled into the driveway, letting Watson duck into the back door of the one-story stucco home.

Outside, an anxious crowd of friends and relatives burst into applause. Inside, an impromptu party erupted as scores of friends and well-wishers dropped by to celebrate Watson’s release.

His sister, Roschelle, told reporters her brother is “not bitter at all. I know he’s sorry for what he actually, you know, did out there. . . . He’s said it over and over again.”

Williams’ brother, Mark Jackson, also stopped by to celebrate. “This is a great day,” he said. “Now we have to wait for the sentencing. I hope that is a better day.”

Although prosecutors and other officials have sought to emphasize that the Denny beating was a criminal act, the racial aspects have been difficult to ignore. Already the verdicts seem to have trigged a backlash, especially among white residents, some of whom have grown resentful over what they see as a criminal justice system that appeases lawbreakers and fails to protect law-abiders.

In Denny’s quiet neighborhood in Santa Clarita, 25-year-old Tim Rodino called the verdicts a joke.

“What they said was, it’s OK for a bunch of thugs to beat the hell out of a guy and get away with it,” said Rodino, a security guard at a condominium complex.

Predictably, local talk radio shows were flooded with calls, but with a variety of reactions. Although most white callers to two popular stations, KFI and KABC, were opposed to the verdicts, calls from black listeners were mixed.

“Virtually every white person who called was angry and disgusted,” said KFI’s John Kobylt, who hosts the afternoon drive-time show with Ken Champeau. But substantial numbers of black callers--”like a silent majority”--were also outraged, Kobylt said. “They thought that Williams hitting Denny with a brick was horrible and he should have been convicted to the hilt. They seem to feel that militant blacks . . . are getting too much attention.”

At First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles’ oldest black congregation, the phones were flooded with dozens of threatening calls.

“They should ship you back to Africa,” one caller said.

“I imagine you people are dancing at church,” said another. “You should be removed from being Christians.”

A third said: “Right now I’m seething and I’m hateful. For me as a white person, I’m seeing it as, ‘You did that to me and I’ll do that to you.’ ”

The Rev. Cecil L. (Chip) Murray, who had watched the court proceedings Wednesday on a pair of TV monitors hung from the auditorium ceiling, tried to put the anger in perspective.

“They’ve been doing a backlash for three centuries,” said Murray, who will host a community meeting Sunday night which 2,000 people are expected to attend, including Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. “There is a lot of white anger, there is a lot of black anger. But it’s healthy because it says we are out of the closet, we are dealing with racism in the justice system.”

Larry Bobo, a professor at UCLA’s Center for Research on Race, Politics and Society, said several factors are fueling what he called a “feeling of outrage, in particular by many whites, that these guys ‘got off.’ ”

Beginning with then-LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates’ participation in Williams’ arrest, Bobo said, the spotlight shone brighter on the Denny beating trial than on prosecutions of other riot-related crimes. Bobo said civic leaders ensured that the case’s outcome would be seen as symbolic.

“It shouldn’t surprise people that some segment of the Anglo population is upset because this has been packaged for them by local leadership--not so much by intent, but certainly by their actions--as the . . . great symbolic test of who the criminal justice system protects,” Bobo said.

In effect, Bobo said, Williams and Watson “were on trial for three days of uprisings,” not merely the assault on Denny. If the verdicts “send people through the roof,” he said, “that’s precisely because the whole thing was packaged in a way that put too much at stake.”

Many police officers also fumed about the verdicts, especially in light of the felony convictions of Laurence M. Powell and Stacey C. Koon in the case of Rodney G. King, who was beaten with nightsticks.

“We’re headed up to the Academy to turn in our batons for bricks, because bricks are only a misdemeanor,” one veteran officer joked bitterly.

But in the mostly Latino Pico-Union district, which sustained heavy damage during the riots, there was sympathy for the jury’s decision and widespread agreement that Denny’s assailants should spend no more time in jail than the 30-month terms given to the two Los Angeles police officers convicted of beating King.

“If the police hit Rodney King, and the judge let them off with so little time, those black men should get the same amount of time,” said Jose I. Mancia, who lost $54,000 when his children’s clothing store was robbed and burned during the riots. Sitting amid white taffeta dresses at his new shop, he said: “White folks don’t understand this verdict because they don’t understand racism. They say it doesn’t exist.”

In Pico-Union, as well as in many other communities hit by the rioting, every opinion was tempered by a sense of pragmatic relief. At least this time, said 30-year-old David Joo, manager of Western Gun Shop in Koreatown, there would be no rioting.

“In terms of justice, this verdict is 100% wrong,” Joo said. “In terms of the community’s safety, the verdict is a very good decision.”

In a move that baffled legal experts, the verdicts were handed down in piecemeal fashion, even as the 10-woman, two-man jury continued to deliberate on several deadlocked counts. Twice forced to begin their discussions anew after jurors were removed, the panel finally served up a string of acquittals and watered-down convictions Monday, in a stunning rebuff to prosecutors.

Of the 15 counts facing Watson and Williams, the jury returned only one felony conviction. Even that felony--a mayhem conviction against Williams for disfiguring Denny with a brick--was the lesser option and spared him a possible life sentence.

Williams was also convicted of four assaults, reduced by the jury from felonies to misdemeanors. Watson was also convicted of an assault count. But the jury had remained deadlocked on the two remaining counts, including Williams’ alleged role in the attempted murder of Denny.

After abruptly ending deliberations Tuesday, when two jurors fell ill, they returned at 8:30 Wednesday morning looking well-rested. Within half an hour, they brought a dramatic conclusion to the case. When the judge ordered the release of Watson, who had already served more than the maximum six-month sentence carried by a single misdemeanor conviction, his mother began sobbing so loudly that Ouderkirk had to ask her to control herself.

“I can understand your emotion,” the judge said. “But please try to calm down a little bit.”

Her son did not look up, keeping his eyes downcast on a pad in front of him as he wrote.

Outside the courtroom, Williams’ lawyer, Edi M.O. Faal, said that because his client has no convictions as an adult, he would ask for the two-year minimum sentence for simple mayhem. Given that Williams has already served 17 months while awaiting trial, Faal said, he should already be eligible for probation.

“Many people didn’t believe us,” said Faal, who will file a request Friday to have Williams’ bail reduced from $580,000 bail to $35,000--the standard for mayhem. “I hope they believe us now.”

During a news conference in Ouderkirk’s courtroom, Faal said: “I apologize to Mr. Denny for what he has suffered. He does not deserve it. He’s a good man. I will pray for him.”

Faal, who has emerged as something of a star in legal circles since the trial began, was praised by the Williams family spokesman, Don Jackson. “Look at the job he’s done,” Jackson said. “He pulled a Houdini on these guys. That judge handcuffed Edi Faal, and the next thing he knew, his hands were back out in front.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence C. Morrison said proving specific intent, which would have been necessary to convict the defendants on several of the charges, is difficult because “it’s very hard to look into a person’s mind.”

But the circumstances, he contended, clearly proved intent. “When you take a brick and hurl it at point-blank range as hard as you can into a helpless man’s head, what other logical conclusion is there other than that you are trying to kill him or at least disfigure him?” he said.

Although Wednesday’s verdicts end the state trial of Williams and Watson, federal authorities could still bring charges against both defendants. Federal agents were part of the team that arrested both suspects, and immediately following those arrests in May, federal charges were filed, accusing them of interfering with interstate commerce.

Once the two men are sentenced, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles could seek indictments against them for that offense. Another option would be to charge them with interfering with a federally protected activity during a riot, a federal offense.

Those charges carry serious sentences--combined, they could produce a prison term of 30 years. Additionally, the defendants could face charges of violating Denny’s civil rights, though most legal analysts believe that would be an extremely difficult case to prove.

U.S. Attorney Terree A. Bowers said Wednesday that a decision has not yet been made on whether to take federal action against the two men or other suspects arrested in connection with the rioting at Florence and Normandie avenues.

“After all prosecutions and sentencings are complete, the U.S. attorney’s office and the Department of Justice will consult with the Los Angeles district attorney’s office and review the state trials and their resulting verdicts and sentences in order to determine what, if any, action may be taken under federal law,” Bowers said in a prepared statement.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Laura A. Galloway, Carla Hall, Jesse Katz, J. Michael Kennedy, Dianne Klein, Sonia Nazario, Jim Newton, Paul Feldman, James Rainey and Amy Wallace.

Some Key Players in the Denny Trial

THE JUDGE

JOHN W. OUDERKIRK

* Age: 50

* Residence: Los Angeles County

* Education: Graduated from Cal State L.A. in 1972. Graduated from Loyola Law School in 1977.

* Background: Former Santa Monica police officer and deputy district attorney with the anti-gang prosecution unit. Known for handing out tough sentences. Appointed to the Municipal Court in 1989 and elevated to Superior Court in 1991.

* Family: Married.

THE DEFENSE ATTORNEYS

EDI M.O. FAAL

* Age: 39

* Residence: Orange County

* Education: Degree from Florida International University; qualified as a barrister at the Middle Temple, Inns of Court in London and admitted to practice in California in 1982.

* Background: Practices civil and criminal law in United States and United Kingdom. Defended a suspect who was acquitted of attempted murder in a drive-by shooting in San Clemente.

* Family: Not available.

EARL C. BROADY JR.

* Age: 63

* Residence: Los Angeles

* Education: J.D. degree from Southwestern University School of Law in 1963.

* Background: Former officer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Father was a Superior Court judge.

* Family: Married, with four children.

THE DEFENDANTS

DAMIAN MONROE WILLIAMS

* Age: 20

* Residence: Los Angeles

* Education: Some high school.

* Background: Installed car alarms for friends and neighbors. Played semipro football. Was accused of six counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated mayhem and two counts of robbery in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial.

* Family: Single, with an infant son.

HENRY KEITH WATSON

* Age: 29

* Residence: Inglewood.

* Education: Some high school.

* Background: Has worked as an airport shuttle driver and pet store employee. Was accused in the Denny trial of one count of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of robbery.

* Family: Married, two daughters.

THE PROSECUTORS

JANET S. MOORE

* Age: 40

* Residence: Los Angeles County

* Education: B.A. in political science from San Jose State University; J.D. from Loyola Law School.

* Background: Formerly assigned to the hard-core anti-gang prosecution unit in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office in Torrance. Currently assigned to the Organized Crime Division. Has prosecuted about 80 trials, including almost two dozen murder cases.

* Family: Single.

LAWRENCE C. MORRISON

* Age: 46

* Residence: Los Angeles County

* Education: B.A. in economics from San Diego State; master’s degree in public administration from USC; law degree from Southwestern University School of Law.

* Background: Los Angeles County deputy district attorney currently assigned to the Organized Crime Division with expertise in DUI murder cases.

* Family: Single.

SOURCE: Times files, L.A. County district attorney’s office, individual lawyers

Compiled by Times researcher Cecilia Rasmussen